Long March 4B launches YaoGan Weixing-12 for China

Chinaâ€™s YaoGan Weixing-12 (YG-12) satellite â€“ highly likely to be used for military purposes â€“ has been launched into orbit by a CZ-4B Chang Zheng-4B (Long March 4B) rocket on Wednesday. The launch took place from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:21am local time.

Another Chinese Launch:

Once again, the Chinese media classed the satellite as a new remote sensing bird that will be used for â€œscientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring.â€

Also on board the launch vehicle was the small TX-1 Tian Xunï¼ˆSky-Patrol)-1 satellite, which is equipped with a 2.5 kg CCD camera that was built by Suzhou University, sporting a maximum resolution of 30 meters. The satellite is 0.60 m x 0.75 cm in size, with a weight of 35 kg.

TAIYUAN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China successfully launched the remote-sensing satellite Yaogan XII Wednesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern Shanxi province, according to a press release from the center.

The satellite was sent into space aboard a Long March 4B carrier rocket at 11:21 a.m. Beijing Time, according to the center.

The satellite will be used to conduct scientific experiments, carry out surveys on land resources, estimate crop yield and help with natural disaster-reduction and prevention.

Also hitching a ride on the rocket was the satellite Tianxun I, which will be used to carry out technological verification tests, according to the center.

Yaogan XI was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province in September last year.

Carrying two satellites, a Long March 4B carrier rocket takes off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, Nov. 9, 2011. Using a Long March 4B carrier rocket, China sent into space its "Yaogan XII", a remote-sensing satellite, and "Tianxun I", another Chinese satellite, on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)